"We need a hobby."

My wife April and I decided one day that we needed something else in our lives besides our work that is not just sitting around staring at a TV; something that would get us out of the house and allow us to meet people and enjoy the fine scenery that is the Carolinas.

The Idea.

We thought a little bit about it and decided we would visit every barbecue restaurant within 100 miles of Rock Hill, South Carolina. Where shall we go? We started out by deciding on the places we would NOT include. Unfortunately, fire department barbecue was excluded. While it is tasty it isn’t necessarily consistent and sometimes very hard to find. A tour of NC/SC fire department barbecue could be a quest in itself.

You have to have a good base....

We both grew up eating local barbecue in our home towns and tend to hold all others to their high standard. So we decided to focus on restaurants that specialized in barbecue. We prefer the family owned joints to the chains, but agreed that even the chains deserved a visit and fair review. Each restaurant has to have its own smoker or pit. Homemade sauces, while delicious are not a requirement. We are both much more interested in the taste of the smoked meat without sauce at first. Sauces should add to the smoked flavor of the meat not change it dramatically or hide it.

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Friday, January 7, 2011

The other night April and I went to Burk's BBQ in Rock Hill to visit our supercool friends Danielle, her husband Corey, and our partner in crime Erin. The most fun was from hanging wth our "peeps" of course! The other great thing? Fried Brownie Delights! Which is exactly what you would think them to be: a fried brownie covered with ice cream and chocolate sauce. And yes they are delightful. I passed by the instore smoker and spotted one of April's all-time favorites... a big tray of burnt ends! So April asked for and got a bag of the "burnt ends" to take home with us. They are sometimes called outside brown if you will, but are the burnt and over smoked outer layer of meat from the pork shoulder (really it can be a brisket, butt, or ham actually). They are very, very smokey and cary the intense flavor of the rub or the sauce used to baste the pork while cooking. The worst thing about a bag of "out side brown"? Having it in your car ride home (car's heater just pushes the intense smoke smell all around the car so your head begins to spin 0_O ) The best thing about a bag of out side brown? It's that you have a bag of out side brown! =)April: What I find hilarious about this is that this picture looks absolutely digusting! I mean anything described as "burnt ends" and "outside brown" that is usually discarded by the restaurant cannot be picturesque, but it is beautiful to me! Burk's has good pulled pork on its own and to get to sample these tasty little pieces of bark was even better. Most places chop up a little bit of this stuff and toss it in with the other chopped pieces of more tender meat. The burnt ends do contain the most flavor but it is very concentrated and a little overpowering, hence the need to mix but I like it best all on its own. I did need an extra gallon of water intake the next day after a few bites of these ends, but it was well worth it!